1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of conveying articles hanging on hangers, in particular articles of clothing, in which the article is transported from a loading region into a conveyance region and from there into a delivery region, as well as devices for use in the method.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,909,373 discloses a method for conveying articles of clothing or the like. The articles are held on hanger hooks suspended in individual conveyor pockets during transportation. The hanger hooks are ejected from the conveyor pockets at switching-out locations and slide along a slide rod into a delivery region. The capacity of a hanging conveyor system operated in this manner is limited in that only one clothes hanger hook can be hung in each conveyor pocket. Consequently, an increase in conveying capacity is possible only by increasing the speed of transport and/or by reducing the distance between the individual conveyor pockets.
Conveyor systems are also known in which the conveyor carriers are so-called trolleys that travel along a rail. Each trolley can receive several clothes hangers. These trolleys are designed to receive a maximum capacity of hangers. Even if substantially fewer articles are transported than the maximum number for which the trolleys are designed, an unnecessarily long conveyor path is required, and the time of transport, from the switching of the conveyed article into the conveyance region until the transfer out into the delivery region, is correspondingly long. As a result, the capacity of such a conveyor system is also limited. Furthermore, trolley conveyor systems are rather expensive to construct.
For individualizing of conveyed material hanging on hangers provided with hanger hooks, there is known from Federal Republic of Germany OS 42 44 219 a horizontally arranged, rotatably driven spindle. The spindle has varying pitch providing grooves of different widths in which the hanger hooks are transported. In this way, it is possible to move the hangers, gripped in each case by the spindle, rapidly away from the stowage length. Accordingly, the small spacing between the individual hanger hooks originally present in the region of the stowage length is correspondingly increased, and the desired individualizing can be obtained. This known individualizing device cannot be used unconditionally when clothes hangers having hooks of wire of different diameter are used.
For switching of hangers provided with hanger hooks into the delivery region of a hanging conveyor system, a prior art device is known in connection with which the material being conveyed is fed continuously and possibly stowed in a loading region and switched-in in a controlled manner. For stowing, a first driven spindle having a flat pitch is provided. For the switching-in, a second driven spindle of larger pitch extending coaxially thereto are provided. The two spindles are to be driven by separate electric motors, in which connection the motors must be synchronized with respect to each other, which, in addition to the structural expense resulting from two motors, also further increases the expense for control.
Proceeding from these problems, an improved method of conveying is needed such that the capacity of the conveyor is substantially increased with at least the same degree of safety, and the structural expense of the conveyor system is reduced.